Chroniko's Boots
"Chroniko's Boots" is the third episode of Kaiba. Summary After escaping the freight ship, Kaiba and his companion Hyohyo crash land onto a nearby planet and just when they are about to be discovered a young girl named Chroniko helps them. Chroniko tells Kaiba about how she is planning to sell her body to help her family, but the next day, something unexpected happens during the procedure. Kaiba later learns of the truth about Chroniko's family situation. Synopsis Kaiba (still in Kaba's body) and Hyohyo exit their escape pod. Meanwhile, TV News audio can be heard that Issoudan has been determined to be responsible for explosions on this planet. Vanilla is seen reporting over walkie-talkie that he and his unit have recovered the life pod. As he talks about catching the stowaways (Kaiba and Hyohyo), images of Issoudan members, namely Sate and Neiro can be seen in the background on tv broadcasts. Kaiba and Hyohyo are hiding behind a rock in an alleyway. As a security guard walks closer, a girl taps on Kaiba's shoulder. After he looks at her, startled, she presses under his neck and his body shrinks into a small square. When the security guard demands to know who's there, the girl walks away while selling her wares. Once they're away from him, the girl tosses the square to the floor and Kaiba's body blows back up into its original size. Seeing Kaiba's wound, she agrees to help them, as it's the last day she'll be able to use her body and she'd like to do what she can. She brings them to a safe place and introduces herself as Chroniko. She tells them she comes here all the time to look at the sky to forget her bad memories, blowing bubbles from shabo. She tells them she lives on the other side of the hill, and dreams about saving money so that she can travel other planets and be free. Chroniko also reveals to them that she has planned to sell her body, and finds it great that she's able to at such a high price. A wealthy buyer wants her body, meaning it "can't be obtained through biosynthesis or any other artificial means". The more money she'll earn from selling her body, the more that she'll have to give to her family, whom she would do anything for. Her mother sold Chroniko's memories about music and books for money for the family and Chroniko hopes that she'll buy them back someday. She asks Kaiba if he likes her boots, admitting that her mother bought them for her despite the fact they didn't have much money at the time. Strangely, she tells him she can't remember anything before that day. Chroniko confesses that she's worried about her brothers but she knows that her mother takes care of them. Chroniko will lose her body when she sells it, but she tells Kaiba that she won't die. Her memory chip will return home and someday they'll buy a body for her to live again! She says goodbye and goodnight to Kaiba as she leaves. The next morning, Chroniko is sitting in a chair. There's a contraption around her head, with wires going in. The doctor is writing something in an unknown language near a bookshelf. Nervously, Chroniko asks how many days it will take for the memory chip to be sent to her home. The doctor answers, saying, "I'd say about a week." He tells her that he'll start extracting her memories and presses a button. A bright white light and electrical noises come from the machine around her head and her eyes close. Her vision becomes distorted. her view of the doctor pulses. He says he'll change her memory so that she'll be unable to change her mind. He then admits that her memory chip will never be delivered. Chroniko's shock is short-lived, as her tear-filled eyes close forever. The doctor extracts her roe using a dropper. He then discards them to the side, where they get sucked up into holes in the ceiling, leaving the roof in a morbid chimney stack. Kaiba and Hyohyo walk through the town when they see Chroniko's body in a vehicle. They chase after it. The vehicle has stops and the two drivers talk about Chroniko's body as they lay it onto a trash heap to return to later. Vanilla spots Kaiba and Hyohyo eavesdropping. As Hyohyo distracts him, Kaiba goes over to Chroniko's body and shakes it, almost in disbelief. Her body blinks but Kaiba discovers that it's empty, as a look with the memory reader leaves nothing but a black hole. Hyohyo returns to find Kaiba in shock, but does some quick thinking. She pulls Kaiba's memory chip out of Kaba and shrinks it. She inserts Kaiba's memory chip into Chroniko. As Kaiba comes to, Vanilla finds Hyohyo. In the fear of being caught, Kaiba struggles to get up in his new body, not yet realizing it was a new body at all until Hyohyo showed him his new reflection in a glass bottle. Vanilla demands to see who's behind the trash heap and Kaiba cautiously walks out. Vanilla is immediately infatuated with Chroniko's body, following Kaiba as he walks away. The two drivers return after selling Chroniko's body, but it's no longer there. An older woman in a house talks of how much better she feels at her family's return to a normal life. While taking down the photo of a woman who looks like Chroniko, she complains to the photo that Chroniko was always the woman's daughter anyway, and not her own. Two small boys are seen behind a large table stacked with food, agreeing loudly with her. When she tells them to eat, they're gleeful, with one even saying they no longer have to eat secretly anymore. Chroniko's aunt talks of how it's been hard for her family since her husband passed away. She's seen extracting memories from a memory chip and inserting them into her own, still in her scalp. She reasons that she's taken care of her niece for long enough, that she hasn't done anything wrong. A picture of her memory bubble appears and it's almost completely empty. Kaiba is seen sitting outside the window of their house. After the family has gone to bed, Kaiba approaches through the window and uses the memory reader to climb into the aunt's memory bubble. It's halfway empty, but slowly fills up as Kaiba stays there. Kaiba takes a book from a shelf and begins to read it. The memory within the book is shown. Chroniko's mother is seen laying on a bed, apologizing to her sister Negi, Chroniko's aunt for having to leave Chroniko behind. A younger Chroniko holds her mother's hand with a scared and sad expression on her face. Kaiba flips through more pages. A different memory is shown. Negi pulls a cart full of nondescript material. A younger Chroniko sits in the back of the cart, pretending to play the piano, and Negi smiles at her. A mother and daughter walk by, and the daughter is wearing a pair of shiny brown boots, splashing in the puddles. Chroniko holds her bare feet to her body and Negi's expression is pained. A different memory is shown. Negi is at the bottom of a deep, wide hole, with other holes on the sides of it. On the bottom however, there are triangular holes with triangular stakes pushed into them. All except one. Negi tells the people above she's alright, she just needs to add one more stake. But something goes wrong and the stakes begin to move and glow in waves. The hole explodes and Negi's body is blown out into the sky, losing her arms in the process. A different memory is shown. A pair of shiny bright pink boots is given to a younger Chroniko. She hugs them and tells Negi, "Thank you, Mom". Negi is on a bed, with new mechanical arms. There's a shadow next to her but she is alone. A different memory is shown. A piano is shown, and the framed picture of Negi's husband spirals into view. Negi, Kona, Naru, and Chroniko are standing at a gravestone. A different memory is shown. Negi is pulling an enormous cart full of material and Chroniko is pushing it from behind. A different memory is shown. A younger Chroniko holds one of her brothers up to Negi's head, either to take bad memories out or put good memories in. A different memory is shown. A younger Chroniko is already selling shabo in the streets. No one is buying. Rows of piano keys flash across the memory, then flowers, then bubbles. As Negi's memory bubble fills up with remembered memories, she groans in pain in her sleep. Tears leak out of her eyes. The vehicle owned by the two body traffickers is seen driving to Chroniko's house. The customer who bought Chroniko's body is in the car with them. They try to appease him, telling him perhaps Chroniko's family changed their minds about selling her body last-minute. The buyer isn't swayed, and simply demands to see the product that he already paid for. They spot Kaiba in Chroniko's body and chase after him. Hyohyo points out a scooter to Kaiba, and Kaiba begins to run. The buyer and the driver wonder if she's still alive or if someone else is in her body. The vehicle begins to bump into Kaiba's scooter, and the buyer tells the driver to run her over, he'll replace her parts later. Kaiba begins to lose control of the scooter, eventually falling off. As the vehicle approaches Kaiba, he's saved: Vanilla steps in front of Kaiba, wearing a large blasting gun. He shoots at the vehicle and the entire vehicle turns into goop. Vanilla tells Kaiba there's nothing to worry with him around, even offering to take him home. He introduces himself as the sheriff of Neuron, telling Kaiba that this planet happens to be the center of trade for original bodies. He tells Kaiba that he even wishes he could take a cute girl like him to another planet. Kaiba takes advantage of Vanilla's attraction to Chroniko's body and asks if Vanilla would take him onto the ship. Vanilla agrees immediately. Back in Negi's home, a table littered with leftovers is shown. Kona and Naru are fast asleep, crumbs still on their faces. Negi is moving the boxes off of the old piano. She swipes the dust off of it before opening it. She begins to play a tune, losing herself in the music. Bubbles begin to move across the screen, with Chroniko sitting on one. A memory is shown. Kona and Naru, peering over the tables edge, asking why they aren't allowed to play the piano when Chroniko can. Negi apologize but nothing changes. The piano is shown with three seats. Negi gasps and her memory bubble fills up entirely with every memory she tried to forget. Several aren't books but vinyl records, and take themselves out and play themselves on record players. It's the same tune Negi was playing on the piano just moments before Several books take themselves out of the shelves as well. They all open at once. A memory is shown. The piano has boxes on top of it. Kona and Naru cling to Chroniko and she comforts them. A memory is shown. A younger Chroniko is given pink boots again, but this time Kona and Naru are in the back, jumping with happiness for her. Negi is shown on the bed with her new mechanical arms again but her husband is sitting next to her, with his hand on hers. More books open. A memory is shown. Negi is pulling a cart up a hill again but Chroniko, Kona, and Naru are all trying to help her by pushing it from the back. Chroniko is smiling. A memory is shown. Kona and Naru have just been born, each already swaddled in their signature color. Negi is under the covers in bed with them, smiling to her husband and Chroniko, who are next to the bed. A memory is shown. Negi and a younger Chroniko are playing the piano together, playing the same song that has been repeating over and over and over again. A memory is shown. Moka is on the bed, with Negi and a younger Chroniko beside it. Negi is reading Chroniko a book. The piano is in the back of the room with its three seats. Negi can be seen playing the piano with her mechanical arms. A memory is shown. A younger Chroniko and Negi are playing on the piano together, with Chroniko's mother and Negi's sister Moka joining them on the third seat, playing the same song with them. A memory is shown. Moka and Negi are swinging a younger Chroniko between them. A memory is shown. A younger Chroniko is running off with the scooter with Negi chasing after her. Moka is sitting watching them. A memory is shown. A younger Chroniko is blowing out candles on a birthday cake while her mother and aunt clap next to her. A memory is shown. A younger Chroniko smiling. Negi falling from the sky. Chroniko's pink boots. Negi pulling a funny face and Moka and a younger Chroniko laughing. A younger Chroniko jumping into Negi's arms with her mother behind her. The music stops. Negi has stopped playing. Tears are falling onto her mechanical hand. She begins to sob Chroniko's name and her face is revealed: tired, tear-filled, heartbroken. She cries out for her sister as well before sobbing openly into the night. The view drifts up to the sky, where the Neuron can be seen. Kaiba looks out a window. Vanilla waits with food and then Kaiba joins him. Characters * Kaiba * Hyohyo * Chroniko * Vanilla * Negi * Kona and Naru * Moka * Chroniko's uncle Other notes *The piano music in this episode, despite playing a major role in the episode, does not appear in the official soundtrack. References *Kaiba Episode 3 IMDB Category:Episodes